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Finally - why women can't read maps
news.au.com ^ | today | staff

Posted on 01/24/2005 9:01:14 AM PST by Rodney King

MEN frequently despair at women's map-reading skills - or rather their lack of them. Now scientists believe they have pinpointed the reason for this conflict between the sexes.

Researchers say it is all down to differences in the reliance of the sexes on either grey matter or white matter in their brains to solve problems. They found that in intelligence tests men use 6.5 times as much grey matter as women, but women use nine times as much white matter.

Grey matter is brain tissue crucial to processing information and plays a vital role in aiding skills such as mathematics, map-reading and intellectual thought.

White matter connects the brain's processing centres and is central to emotional thinking, use of language and the ability to do more than one thing at once.

Professor Rex Jung, a co-author of the study at the University of New Mexico, said: "This may help explain why men tend to excel in tasks requiring more local processing, like mathematics and map-reading, while women tend to excel at integrating information from various brain regions, such as is required for language skills.

"These two very different pathways and activity centres, however, result in equivalent overall performance on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as those found on intelligence tests."

Previous studies have shown that women have weaker spatial awareness than men, making it harder for them to read maps.

Research has also found that in childhood, girls' vocabulary develops more quickly and that in later life women can speak 20,000 to 25,000 words a day compared to a man's 7000 to 10,000.

For the study, published in the online edition of the journal NeuroImage, researchers performed a series of brain scans on 26 female and 22 male volunteers using magnetic resonance imaging equipment.

All the volunteers were in good health, had no history of brain injury and the average IQ scores of the two sexes were similar.

Their brains were scanned while they carried out tests designed to assess their general intelligence.

Researchers then created a map of a brain showing the varying levels of activity in the brains of men and women. About 40 per cent of the human brain is grey matter and 60 per cent white matter


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: brain; chicks; sexdifferences; wimins
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius
When he finally needs to know, he will likely stop at a truckstop or a busy gas station so he can have the highest possibility of getting correct instructions

A busy gas gas station? LOL, I don't know where you live, but here in NY, that's the last place to go as the workers don't speak English anymore.

161 posted on 01/24/2005 10:50:53 AM PST by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: Rodney King

I've always wondered if other husbands have wives that can't speak correctly about directions N,S,E,W either. For instance, her folks live 2 hours south of us but whenever she talks about the trip, she says that we're going "up" to see her folks. No we're not. We're going "down" to see her folks. You don't travel up south or down north. Even if we drive somewhere east or west of home, she still says that we're going up to X-ville instead of saying that we're driving "over" to X-ville. What's up (or down) with that?


162 posted on 01/24/2005 10:54:24 AM PST by OB1kNOb (SAM: "Hey Norm, how's the world been treating you?" NORM: "Like a baby treats a diaper.")
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To: Sacajaweau

You might be right
Men and women think differently. However, some men think like women and vice versa.


163 posted on 01/24/2005 10:54:29 AM PST by OldEagle (Haven't been wrong since 1947, except about Hillary.)
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To: A Ruckus of Dogs

You don't ask the workers, they are not out driving, you just say "Anyone know how to get to Highway J?" Men who don't know can keep quiet without embarassment and someone who does know gets to be the hero.


164 posted on 01/24/2005 10:56:11 AM PST by Anitius Severinus Boethius
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To: Rodney King
"Research has also found that in childhood, girls' vocabulary develops more quickly and that in later life women can speak 20,000 to 25,000 words a day compared to a man's 7000 to 10,000.

They fail to mention that during a male/female altercation, women say 10 times more words than a man.

165 posted on 01/24/2005 10:58:38 AM PST by blam
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To: Charles H. (The_r0nin)
Not only can they do 20,000 a day, they have this reserve thing....They hoard them....

Picking a choice moment, they let loose with the reserve.

166 posted on 01/24/2005 11:02:50 AM PST by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: blam

And God forbid, man forgets to utter "Of course I love you. You know that".


167 posted on 01/24/2005 11:05:00 AM PST by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: Sacajaweau
My familiarity with maps goes back before childhood. At 18 yo
I had the pleasure of acquainting myself with the swamps of
southeast Georgia. We were an infantry platoon sent on a
"movement to contact". The objective was a "command post"
located about 20 km from our Assembly area. Our Plt. Sgt. at the time was a slumming Green Beret who was recovering from a broken leg injured during airborne unit training. He lead
our platoon through some of the thickest, muddiest, muggiest
swamp I had ever experienced. I was on point most of the night, taking verbal commands on direction and headings. This guy was amazing. We crossed that swamp in total darkness with only the glow of his compass and the stars to guide us. We came within 50 meters of our objective from the
"swamp-ward". They never expected us from that direction. Our Green Beret leader had taken us around the obvious avenue of approach and ending up capturing the command post intact with our company commander and his boss, the battalion commander. We got cussed out for about 10 minutes
by the captain until he saw the Col. take the platoon sargent off to the side. They were shaking hands and laughing. Apparently Sargent Leonard had trained and deployed with our battalion CO. A very impressive exercise and it impressed me enough to study my maps. 2 years later I was navigating near Ft. Carson, Colorado. Difference of night and day, geographically. Same principle. I was able to accomplish nearly the identical mission myself. I was
actually promoted in part for my ability to navigate. I always carry a map in my car and on the motorcycle.
168 posted on 01/24/2005 11:06:19 AM PST by MajorTom56 (Do it right the first time, every time)
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To: OldEagle
I don't believe they THINK differently. The difference is in the individual and circumstances.

Example: My daughter sends me an Easter Card. I call her on Easter (hate the postage/card/mailbox routine). My son emails me on my Birthday. I email him on his...but a few days before because I'm afraid I'll forget (Busy time of year & old age).

In the end, the goal (thought)is exactly the same but the methods are different.

If you don't want to learn how to read a map 7 USE IT, you'll just have to get there "YOUR WAY. Yes, you always get there!!

169 posted on 01/24/2005 11:15:05 AM PST by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: Daus
She made it all the way to Tomah! :)

Wow - took her a while to notice her course deviation, eh?

Way back in college, I used to drive from Madison to Minneapolis usually about once a month. I think I could still drive that in my sleep.

I think I've still got the mileage memorized from certain points. Madison to Dells, 53. Dells to Tomah, another 50. Eau Claire to Minneapolis, about 80.

Obviously I was practicing for the future, getting ready for VFR sectionals and Time/Speed/Distance calculations at a few hundred knots.

As for the navigational gender gap, I think there is something to it. It always surprises me that I can break out the road atlas and help my girlfriend navigate over the phone after she has gotten herself hopelessly lost.

Maybe she just gets lost on purpose so I can feel worthwhile. Which is fine with me.
170 posted on 01/24/2005 11:16:24 AM PST by HerrKobes
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To: Sacajaweau
What drives me crazy is that men refuse to stop at the local garage and ask directions.

As Daniel Boone used to say "I've never been lost, just a might confused."

171 posted on 01/24/2005 11:16:59 AM PST by Inyo-Mono (Proud member of P.O.O.P., People Offended by Offended People.)
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To: Rodney King
Research has also found that in childhood, girls' vocabulary develops more quickly and that in later life women can speak 20,000 to 25,000 words a day compared to a man's 7000 to 10,000.

My wife says that this is because between me and the kids, she has to repeat everything she says twice.

172 posted on 01/24/2005 11:19:06 AM PST by dfwright
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To: LTCJ
This study would have been greatly enhanced had 2nd Lieutenants been used as a control group

You're forgetting a very important variable: Air Force or Army?
173 posted on 01/24/2005 11:20:58 AM PST by HerrKobes
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To: Rodney King
It has nothing to do with grey matter. Women just have a hard time judging lengths. Men have lied to them so many times.
174 posted on 01/24/2005 11:27:10 AM PST by concerned about politics (Vote Republican - Vote morally correct!)
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To: Rodney King

I'm told that I'm "cartographically challenged"...I get lost in a paperbag. Ever since I got married, my husband carries his Thomas guide in his backpack for those emergency phone calls from me, "I'm lost!".


175 posted on 01/24/2005 11:33:46 AM PST by sonserae
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To: RobRoy
The women print out the instructions, the men print out the map.

I (a fenale) print out the map. I can't figure out the instructions which usually go something like: drive north for 2.6 miles veer left for 6.7 miles then go east for 2 miles... I get lost after the fourth or fifth instruction. The map is easier to read.

176 posted on 01/24/2005 11:37:18 AM PST by jellybean (Free Ol' Crusty!)
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To: twigs

It's bunk. I read maps just fine and ace my math classes. Isn't it males who won't ask for directions or look at a map when they are lost and prefer to go on instinct? My brother keeps the Thomas Guide in the trunk...a lot of good that does him when he's behind the wheel on the freeway:)


177 posted on 01/24/2005 11:41:50 AM PST by nycgal
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To: Clemenza

Things women (generally) just can't get into:

11. The Three Stooges


178 posted on 01/24/2005 12:07:09 PM PST by Max in Utah (By their works you shall know them.)
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To: Max in Utah

Oh, not true! They were among my favorites growing up. There was a Three Stooges festival recently on some station. My husband and I sat there and laughed ourselves silly!


179 posted on 01/24/2005 12:14:44 PM PST by twigs
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To: Rodney King

It is very important to keep track of my money so writing 23cent checks help. Besides why carry cash whe one has a checkbook???


180 posted on 01/24/2005 12:18:39 PM PST by mlmr (The Majority of the Murders Committed Worldwide have been Committed by Leftist Governments..........)
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